This is an excellent opportunity for the industrial robot. Many processes require post production operations which will improve the quality of the finished item. Typically casting, forging and even some machining processes require finishing operations to remove gates, runners, flash or simply to remove sharp burrs and razor sharp edges.

At first glance it may appear that this is a simple job to automate, but this is far from the truth. Deburring is essentially a manual, semi skilled task which requires a combination of touch/feel/vision and also care. Quality of output can vary dramatically based on the skill of the operative and the interest he displays in producing quality products.

There are a number of systems houses who specialise in exactly this area with considered approaches to problems associated with grinding and polishing. They also have a set of standard solutions with generic qualities. These take the form of an off the shelf grinding station.

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